Train Tuesday Part 102: Sky-High Eyes

Whoop, whoop – here we go again with another rousing edition of good ol’ Train Tuesday. And this time, we’re topping off our RPG tease from last week in this hustling, bustling new transportation era for our delightful DnD campaign!

We can’t expect a massive leap in technology with the stunning invention of our Hovertrains without expecting that marvelous tech to spread to other wild contraptions. Hence, we plan to release all sorts of Steampunk contraptions to demonstrate that gears and sprockets are here to stay. Sometimes other modes of transportation complement one another, and that’s our focus for today.

Airships are nothing new to DnD campaign settings, but we see this mode of transport as one that can accentuate Hovertrain travel and keep passengers safe…or unsafe, depending on the adventuring party’s next mission. We’ve several ideas on how to introduce these wicked airships into our TTRPG game, but let’s discuss the lofty 3D prints here first.

Last week, we introduced a new NPC – Captain Windsor Valour. He’s the proprietor of Sky Runners, which is an air travel transportation service for hire. Sometimes, players need to travel by land via horse and cart, by sea via boat, by rail via Hovertrain, and even to the skies via an airship. Valour is a no-nonsense and extremely skilled pilot. Our loner, brilliant aviator, can get anything off the ground and is worth every gold piece for his one-of-a-kind services.

Our 3D Print comes courtesy of STL Miniatures and their wonderful Airship Crew Set. The moment we laid our eyes on this amazing balloon, we knew we had to 3D print it. It does have some fragile pieces, and we lost a few of them due to our inadvertent, clumsy handling. Still, we never sweat the small stuff, though. If a particular part of two snaps off by the end of the process, that just means we gave that STL a little extra character. 😉

You can tell we got a little lazy in taking some post-paint photos for this TTRPG hot air balloon, as we didn’t give ourselves enough space to post it in our usual landscape picture format. Our bad. We’ll do better next time when taking larger STL photos.

You also get a good glimpse of how we just couldn’t save the thinner ropes and the flag at the top. We really manhandled this one, and stuff just started snappin’. Again, don’t be hard on yourselves. Resin, even with our usual mixture of Siraya Tenacious Flex, will always have some unwelcomed post-print casualties.

DM Ben colored this one up and used several go-to colors, including:

• Balloon: ASP Cloudburst Blue
• Ropes: ASP Pallid Bone
• Wood: GSW Skeleton Brown Dipping Ink
• Metal: Citdeal Stormhost Silver

We decided to experiment with the canvas sacks by using GSW Komodo Khaki and then applying a brown wash over the top. We’re excited to use that combination on other canvas-style scatter terrain pieces going forward.

Here’s our starting list of story hooks to get the cool-as-a-cucumber Captain Windsor Valour into our DnD campaign:

• Eye in the Sky: could be a reconnaissance mission before the adventurers storm in.
• Protective Escort: Hovertrains don’t want any surprises from above.
• Shortcut Travel: Travel by Airship might get the players there before the Hovertrain.
• Need a Lift: The only way to get to a hard-to-reach locale could be going upwards.

DM Ben plans to give players the option to initially utilize Sky Runners’ stealthy services by having them propel themselves from their Airship onto a Hovertrain car roof, as boarding the train was just too intense due to all the extra security.

Until next time, Gnome Tinkerers!